Piaget's Stages

Jean Piaget held that children think differently from adults, not less than adults, and that thinking develops through four fixed stages: sensorimotor (0-2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11) and formal operational (11 and above). Every child passes through all four in the same order.

The four stages

Key terms Piaget gave

• Schema — a mental file for a class of things. A child who knows 'dog' calls a goat a dog at first.
• Assimilation — fitting new information into an existing schema (calling the goat a dog).
• Accommodation — changing the schema to fit reality (making a separate 'goat' file).
• Equilibration — the drive to balance the two; this is what pushes development forward.
• Object permanence — knowing a thing exists when it is out of sight; gained by about 8-12 months.
• Conservation — knowing quantity does not change when shape or arrangement changes; gained in the concrete operational stage.

Preoperational limits you must recognise

Between two and seven the child cannot yet think logically, and CTET tests exactly these limits:

• Egocentrism — cannot take another person's point of view. A Class 1 child holds a picture facing herself while describing it to the class.
• Centration — attends to one feature only. Judges 'more water' by the height of the glass alone.
• Irreversibility — cannot mentally undo a step. Knows 4 + 3 = 7 but not that 7 - 3 = 4.
• Animism — treats objects as alive. 'The chair hurt me because it is angry.'

The concrete operational child — Classes 2 to 5

From about seven the same child succeeds on the conservation task, sorts objects on two attributes at once, arranges ten sticks by length without trial and error, and can reverse an operation. What she still cannot do is reason on words alone; the objects must be there or clearly imaginable.

✗ A Class 3 child can solve 'if all bloops are razzies and all razzies are lazzies…' logic.  |  ✓ That is formal operational reasoning; a Class 3 child needs real objects or a real story.

Frequently asked questions

At what stage do children develop conservation?

In the concrete operational stage, from about seven years. Before that, in the preoperational stage, the child centres on one dimension such as height and thinks the amount has changed when a liquid is poured into a taller glass.

What is the difference between assimilation and accommodation?

Assimilation fits new experience into a schema the child already has. Accommodation changes or creates a schema because the old one does not work. Both together, driven by equilibration, produce cognitive development.

Which Piagetian stage do most CTET Paper 1 children belong to?

Classes 1 and 2 children are usually late preoperational, and Classes 3 to 5 children are concrete operational. That is why primary teaching depends so heavily on real objects and hands-on activity.